Female Fantasy Armor

She's essentially wearing plate. It's formed to her body and stylized, but it's not too different from what Jeanne D'Arc might have worn.

She wore light plate armor that followed the contours of her slim frame and allowed her a free range of movement. This was essential since her fighting style relied on speed, not power.


It's a bit tell-y, but sometimes telling is okay.

Yes, sometimes telling is okay. And not only okay, it's essential.

I like rwm's description. I think it fits the pictures in the links well.
The last time I described armor I started with the colors and described how heavy it looks because it's important.

"Donna's fitted plate armor provided her with both protection and a desire to watch her figure: the complete set cost over three hundred gold pieces and she couldn't afford to have a new suit crafted every time she packed on ten pounds."

Just for fun. I love this link:

http://womenfighters.tumblr.com/

Just for fun part 2....

Reminds me of this- a parody of female fantasy armour.

Personally, if she was a main character I'd do a lot of research about plate armour in general (although not necessarily to put it all in the description). If a lot of characters are wearing armour in the book it won't be research wasted.

I'd say start with the Wikipedia entry for plate armour and continue your research from there. There's probably quite a few websites that have labelled descriptions of armour and how it is worn and some of them will be in the references for the Wikipedia article.

I'd also go to a museum and look at some exhibits of armour. There has to be some somewhere near you. And see if you can get to a re-enactment or LRP event and get a hold of some real stuff. You can then see better how it is put together and what it is made of.

There are a number of LRP traders out there who will do armour fitted for women (http://www.darkbladeuk.co.uk/ARMOUR/Body-Female/c-1-70-74/ being one). My wife has a leather lorica segmentata which was designed with her body shape in mind (you can see it here http://www.flickr.com/photos/10792991@N02/7487280458/ along with some other examples in the same set). Here is the same armour on a different woman http://www.flickr.com/photos/10792991@N02/7863077658/ and here is a metal lorica segmentata on a woman http://www.flickr.com/photos/10792991@N02/7487311816/

Common materials you may see in western style armour include steel (for chain rings and plates), leather (both soft for padding, such as a gambeson, and hard for protection) and heavy wool (for under tunics). You may see other metals (bronze, copper, gold, silver etc) used as decoration but many other metals are too rare and/or too soft to use for the bulk of the armour. Aluminium, for example, is a great metal for armour (for the same reason it is great for making planes - it is light and structurally hard) but until the advent of electrolysis to extract it from the ore it is incredibly rare and almost unheard of (I have a theory that Mithrill, the magical metal used in middle earth, is aluminium or at least something similar to it).

In the east you have more exotic armours including laquered paper and it was also common for soldiers to wear silk under their armour instead of wool (wool was common in the west, silk was common in the east) and that had advantages against arrow heads (the silk would not break when hit with an arrow so while the arrowhead would sink into the flesh and do damage it could be easily pulled out without making the wound worse).

Bless you for having your character wear armour at all. Word of advice: give her a long-sleeved undergarment (at least lightly padded) and a mail hauberk to wear under the articulated cuirass depicted. The combination of bare arms and unprotected thighs with full torso protection is just odd (unless she's fighting in a formation with large shields, like ancient Greeks or Romans).

Here's a good place to create a ten-page, obsessively in-depth discussion on your question: The Armour Archive. (Just, for God's sake, stay away from the Political Discussions section. Most of my fellow members there seem to be to the right of Rush Limbaugh. Including one actual Hitler apologist who, irritatingly, is also a true expert on mail.)

gategod said:

What are some words you would use to describe this character's armor/attire if she was in your story?

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She's wearing a form-fitting plate tunic.

Frankly, I don't know how she moves in it. Doesn't look as if she'd be able to bend at the waist at all.

gategod said:

When I look at it, I'm that evil writer who wants to describe every single thing until their is no mistaking what it looks like.

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Resist this urge. It's not necessary and it won't work anyway. Your reader will only get bogged down trying to see what you see.

Go for large strokes.

The swathes of purple fabric, at least the parts hanging down, look impractical and dangerous to me. An opponent could grab hold and pull her off balance. Her bare arms are vulnerable, as are her unprotected thighs (looks like she's at least wearing leather, which helps some).

And don't even get me started on the unstable high-heeled wedges.

Describe the armour in action and through that action--how it reacts to actual combat. And let the reader have some input by using his/her imagination (don't describe every detail). One of the worst things you can do is patronize a reader by spoon feeding every last detail. You want the reader to be intellectually invested in your story, not sit passively while you open his/her head and pour in detail after detail. It also slows the pace of the scene to a crawl. Some readers may toss the book at that point.

Definitely give her some sort of mail (with undergarments for padding). It's much more maneuverable at the joints - BUT, mind the weight. Go to the hardware store and find a roll of several yards of heavy-gauge chain, then try to pick it up; that's essentially what your character will be wearing.

Cyia said:

Definitely give her some sort of mail (with undergarments for padding). It's much more maneuverable at the joints - BUT, mind the weight. Go to the hardware store and find a roll of several yards of heavy-gauge chain, then try to pick it up; that's essentially what your character will be wearing.

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A good riveted hauberk (long-sleeved, knee-length) for a small-framed person should be under 20 pounds.

Gah! While it looks cool, I keep thinking the breast plate will continuously jab her in the arm pits when she moves. As cool as it looks and how much speed it'll give her, she'd definitely have something on her arms for protection. Her arms are as much a target as her chest and probably more likely to get hit, even if the attacker is trying for her chest.

Someone trying to cause harm has no problem with going for anything unprotected, like her head or arms. Take out her arms and you take out a good portion of her defensive abilities. Then you can go for her chest, head, or upper legs where the arteries pass into the limbs.

My heroine wore a breastplate, skull-cap, and a gauntlet on her left hand. I had some help in fleshing out her appearance.

Dulle Griet (aka Crazy Greta)

I think the image you posted is ridiculously impractical. As far as I can tell - the material that hangs skirt-like, is the same material shown covering her breasts. Are we to assume it's some kind of metal? Chain mail perhaps, with buttons near the collar bone? And if her culture has the technology to forge plate - why make a harness that leaves the chest exposed? What's with the purple braiding? Something for your opponent to grab, or a blade to hook on? The vertical 'ab' plates, would make bending nearly impossible, unless they are articulated?

No. It's ridiculous looking and totally impractical.

But hey, I made my living on horse in armor for two decades, what do I know?

Manuel Royal said:

A good riveted hauberk (long-sleeved, knee-length) for a small-framed person should be under 20 pounds.

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Not the pieces I've handled. I'd put the shorter lengths at 30 - 40 lbs.

WriteKnight said:

I think the image you posted is ridiculously impractical. As far as I can tell - the material that hangs skirt-like, is the same material shown covering her breasts. Are we to assume it's some kind of metal? Chain mail perhaps, with buttons near the collar bone? And if her culture has the technology to forge plate - why make a harness that leaves the chest exposed? What's with the purple braiding? Something for your opponent to grab, or a blade to hook on? The vertical 'ab' plates, would make bending nearly impossible, unless they are articulated?

No. It's ridiculous looking and totally impractical.

But hey, I made my living on horse in armor for two decades, what do I know?

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Siff is part of an advanced alien race loosely based in the Asguardian lore of norse mythology, along with Marvel's Thor. Not exactly real world applicable.

I think this has more to do with writing than research, moving to SF/F.

Gategod, can you tell us anything about your character's culture? (I know it's made-up, but if, in your mind, it corresponds to any real historical period, that would be relevant.) Also, what kind of climate zone will she be traveling through?